Vital sightings lead to arrest in rape case

Sharp-eyed Whakatane resident Noel Hartley and his wife, Elaine. Picture / Alan Gibson

It was the dirt on the car that caught Noel Hartley's attention.

In fact, the blue Honda Accord was so dirty that the Whakatane retiree took a mental note of the licence plate.

His vigilance paid off, one of two crucial sightings that led police to a man wanted in connection with the 26-hour rape and kidnap ordeal suffered by a Napier woman.

Police got the second report of the car travelling south between Whakatane and Opotiki just before 9am yesterday. At 9.20am , police stopped the vehicle at a roadblock and arrested the 31-year-old driver.

Mr Hartley told the Herald he was at the Caltex service station on Commerce St, Whakatane, on Wednesday at 11am when he noticed a car stop at the car wash.

"It was very, very dirty, which gave me the impression that it'd possibly come from somewhere else," the 71-year-old said. "Something told me in my mind that I should take a mental note of this."

Mr Hartley could not find a pen so he tried to commit the licence plate to memory.

He watched the Honda Accord go through the car wash, curious to see if the suds would remove all the dirt, then went to a nearby shop and borrowed a pen after the car drove off.

He knew nothing about the man police were hunting in connection with the vicious attack on the woman, who was kidnapped from her home on Tuesday morning, taken in her own car to Mohaka Forest off the Napier-Taupo Highway, and repeatedly raped.

Mr Hartley did not get a good look at the Honda's driver but wrote the registration on a scrap of paper and put it in his shirt pocket.

He did not think much more about it until he watched the TV1 news at 6pm and realised police were looking for the car he had seen.

"I'm sitting here [at home] and it just about blew me away," he said. "As soon as I saw it, I thought I better ring the police."

Mr Hartley's tip, although he had remembered the registration one digit wrong, alerted officers that the man was in the Whakatane area.

Officers sprang into action and roadblocks were set up.

By this time, the Honda had turned around and was heading north.

Police stopped the car and arrested the driver about 300m south of Ohiwa Oyster Farm fish and chip shop.

The shop's manager, who did not want to be named, saw officers lay spikes on the road as she put the open sign out at 9am.

"I just thought it was some sort of drug bust," the woman said.

She went back inside and came out again when two people pulled up and told her a northbound car had been stopped and a man arrested outside.

"By the time I got out there they had him on the side of the car and were handcuffing him."

In Whakatane District Court yesterday afternoon, the man, who was handcuffed, appeared on a charge of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle. A woman in the public gallery shouted "scum" as the accused left the dock.

He was granted interim name suppression and remanded in custody to appear in Napier District Court today.

Police say further charges are likely.

ESR scientists are due to fly to Whakatane today to conduct forensic examinations of the vehicle.

Judge Thomas Ingram imposed an interim suppression order on the defendant's name despite opposition from the media present.

Inquiry head Detective Sergeant Mike Foster of Napier said last night that police were pleased an arrest had been made.

"We're extremely grateful to the public for their response," he said. "We wanted to get this guy a.s.a.p."

He said the sightings of the Honda Accord by Mr Hartley and the person driving between Whakatane and Opotiki had been "extremely critical".

Mr Foster said the victim was traumatised but continuing to help police with their inquiries.

"She's been through a hell of an ordeal. She's doing incredibly well under the circumstances and she's an incredibly strong person."

He said she and her family were also very relieved an arrest had been made.